In the comments section for Gothic Cottage, Brenda and Robin both investigated the house’s occupants, and Robin in particular reported its connection with Victoria Bridge. Originally a brewer, James Dredge (1794-1863) designed Victoria Bridge near his brewery on Upper Bristol Road. Victoria was the first of nearly fifty bridges he would go on to construct as far away as India. Please read Robin’s comments at the link

above. I appreciated the link so much, it forced me to come out of retirement.

This photo was taken quite a while ago. Sainsburys is now near the bridge, which has suffered several graffitti attacks. Also, while it may be well-proportioned, its quite diminutive in size (explained by the fact that this was a first bridge its designer built–so more of a test case) — evidenced by a teen in the photo climbing its cables and mounting one of its towers.

I’d never heard of Dredge before I read them in the comments section but I like the fact that a brewer was responsible for this piece of engineering. My own undergraduate school was founded by a very wealthy nineteenth-century brewer as one of the first colleges for female education. The first building erected was massive, intended to hold everything from dormitories and classrooms to offices, the library, kitchens, and a chapel. while it was designed by a prominent architect, the brewer-founder specified that he wanted the building to be fexible internally should female education prove to be a bust and he need to recoup his losses by adaptively reusing the college building as a massive brewery. The internal layout remains that the halls within the building are large enough to roll industrial-size kegs down. The size was justified to the ladies attending that it was wide enough for two hoop dress-wearing girls to pass each other with ease.

There are great little moments in Bath and the area. Here, through this tunnel of foliage, lies a sunlight-lit house at the end. When you get there and gaze out where its windows overlook, you find that you’re at the base of Prior Park and can see the famous Paladian bridge there. Isn’t that amazing?
Over the hedge: 1, 2.

Here’s the [or Grandpa’s] Red Ball Express going over H. Goodridge’s Cleveland Bridge, 1827! It has four Doric pavilions and is EU compliant; this thing can carry trucks! To prevent those heavy things from going off the edge and busting the historic cast iron railing, a fiber-mesh-futuristic-material-thingy was installed between the road and pedestrian path to bounce trucks back into the road if they drift.

Like this Model A (?), I’m off! I’m going to be gone for eleven days. I wish everyone a good July!

The Etching is from 1846 and the photo was taken a few months ago from Alexandria Park on Lyncombe Hill, in the center you see Bath Abbey, behind which the spire belongs to St Michael’s Without. Its spire points to John Eveleigh’s Camden Crescent (1787-1794, not yet posted) in Walcot. To the lower left of the Abbey are the Roman Baths (not yet posted). The large building to the right of the Abbey is the Empire Hotel (not yet posted), and to the right of the hotel is Pulteney Bridge, leading the Bathwick New Town and Great Pulteney Street (also not yet posted). The tall spire and church at the extreme right is St John the Evangelist RC Church (it is not in the etching.) The area (known as the Ham) around St John’s is also empty, it was owned by the Roman Catholic Church and unwisely sold part and parcel. It now features the modern-looking police station. The street that defines this empty area is Manvers Street. Mr. Manvers had dreams of developing the area around the Bath Spa Train Station (bottom right, not yet posted) as the posh section of town but ran out of funds during a financial crisis. It still is relatively undeveloped, which is what prompted the redevelopment during the late 1960s. At the bottom left of the etching and picture, you can see houses and an ugly church. This is St Mark’s, now a community centre but built as one of three Commisioner’s Churches in Bath (the other two are Holy Trinity (demolished in late 1950s) and St Saviour, Larkhall (not yet posted)).
In front of the Bath Spa Train Station runs parallel Dorchester Street, and there to the left of the station stand (now stood) some 20th dairy buildings. Behind them, with its large parking lot space is the 1960s-70s Bath Coach Station, and behind that is the Ham Gardens Parking Garage. (These are obviously only in the photo). To the left of these modern structures is the dominating late 1960s, early 1970s Southgate Shopping Center with its Merchant’s Passage. Between the Southgate Mall and the Roman Baths along Stall Street is the modern Marks & Spencers Store, which demolished the listed buildings St James’ Church (1768-1769) and the National School (1816-1818).